Justice for Sara by Erica Spindler

“Yup, it’s true. I’m back.”
    She saw that there was room at the counter and headed that way. It was a weird feeling, all those gazes on her back. She was tempted to look over her shoulder and catch them staring, but figured it’d only serve to give them more to talk about.
    She took a stool. The waitress approached. Kat recognized her. She’d manned this counter ten years ago as well. She’d been a classmate of Sara’s, had married young and lost her husband in an oil rig accident. “Hi, Mary Lee,” she said. “Coffee would be great.”
    Mary Lee silently filled her cup.
    “Is Dab around?”
    The waitress looked surprised. “She is, but—”
    “Could you let her know her old friend Kat’s here to see here?”
    Mary Lee hesitated, then shrugged. “Sure. I guess so.”
    A moment later Dab stepped out from the kitchen. She was flushed from the heat. And very pregnant.
    Kat tried not to stare. She tried not reveal how upended she was, how startled. Had she expected time to stand still for Dab, the way it had for her?
    “Hello, Katherine,” she said. “I’d heard you were back.”
    “Bad news travels fast in Liberty.”
    “I don’t want any trouble,” she said softly. “I’m due any day now, I shouldn’t even be working but Mom had a heart attack. If you start something, I might just drop this baby right here behind this counter.”
    Dab had always been the honest one. Kat had liked her for it. “I don’t want any trouble. Why would I?”
    Dab lowered her voice even more. “The trial? My testimony against you?”
    “You told the truth, didn’t you?”
    Dab held her gaze a moment, then looked over her shoulder. “Lyle, honey? You think you can manage a few minutes without me?”
    He said he could and she motioned to the door at the back of the restaurant. “Everybody’s way too interested in what we might say to each other. Besides, I’ve got to get off my feet. C’mon around.”
    Moments later, they reached Dab’s cramped office. With a sigh of relief, Dab lowered herself to her chair. An engineering feat, Kat thought.
    “Is this your first?” she asked.
    “It is.” She beamed. “We’re so excited. It’s a boy. Lyle couldn’t wait to find out the sex.”
    It took Kat a moment to find her voice. “Lyle’s your husband, then?”
    “Been married four years.” She held out her left hand, wiggled her fingers. “How about you, Kat? You married? Have any kids?”
    Questions any old school chums would ask after ten years, not much more significant than How’s the weather been?
    Not for Kat. For her, they dug deep. Her life, the direction it had taken, so much of it hadn’t been her choice.
    “Nope,” she said lightly, “still single.”
    They fell elephant-in-the-room silent. Dab broke it first. “I only told the truth, Kat.”
    “I know.” She paused. “I looked pretty guilty.”
    “I never said you did it, only that you talked about it. About wishing she was dead, I mean.”
    “I know,” Kat said again. “But I didn’t do it.”
    Dab shifted her gaze slightly.
    She didn’t believe her.
    It took Kat’s breath away. “I didn’t,” she said again. “And I’m going to prove it.”
    “I’ve got to get back in the kitchen, Kat. It’s been real nice seeing you.”
    When all else fails, fall back on good, old-fashioned southern manners. As disingenuous as they can be.
    “Wait.” Kat pulled a Good Earth flyer from her purse. “I’m thinking of opening up one of my bread stores down the street.” She handed her the flyer. “A big part of my business is supplying restaurants with healthy, whole-grain alternatives. I hope you’ll be open to me calling on you.”
    Dab skimmed the information. “Sure. Of course. I get requests for this sort of thing.”
    “Any of the old gang around?” Kat asked as they stood.
    “Some. I don’t see ’em much anymore. I’m pretty busy.”
    “What about Ryan?”
    “Ryan?”
    “Benton.”
    “Oh yeah, him.” She laughed